ANALYSIS OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS USED BY COSTA RICAN EDUCATION STUDENTS: A CONTRIBUTION FROM PERSONAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Internet access and the development of technology tools, especially 2.0 web, are creating changes in the tutoring and learning aspect in all educational areas. Areas where University degree is not the exception. These changes demand new competencies in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in university students, both to search and manage information, generate or modify the content and share it with other users; aspects that derive from Personal Learning Environment (PLE), defined as “(...) the set of tools, sources of information, connections and activities that each person uses assiduously to learn” (Adell & Castañeda, 2010, p. 23).

The results of this work, which are part of a larger research, aim to analyze the technological tools that integrate the students’ PLE of Centro de Investigación y Docencia en Educación de la Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.

The methodology is addressed from a quantitative approach, specifically a retrospective and transversal design. The data collection is carried out applying a questionnaire built ad hoc, based on the PLE concept and components proposed by Castañeda & Adell (2013). The sample amounts to 381 students from different areas of education that are in the last year of their career.

The results show how the student’ PLE are poorly developed in terms of consolidating tools to search information, generate content and share information with others, highlighting the lack of knowledge of many resources stemming from 2.0 web, an aspect that undoubtedly supposes a decline in the PLE by not taking advantage of the potential that some tools present.